Correcting Apostrophe Errors - GMAT Verbal

This sentence misuses an apostrophe. Apostrophes should never be used to pluralize a noun. The correct plural of "stock" is "stocks." The correct answer choice is, "people invest in stocks."

This sentence contains an apostrophe error. The word "bags" is possessive in this sentence; in order to make it properly possessive, an apostrophe is needed before the "s." No additional punctuation or changes are necessary. The correct choice is, "The book bag's weight was."

The rules of apostrophes say that you must ues an apostrophe after the "s" of a plural noun that ends in "s" but before the "s" if the noun is pluarl and irregular (e.g., teeth). Mr. Jones could be Mr. Jones' or Mr. Jones's, depending on convention.

As it is written, the sentence portrays the president as working with the "leader's of his own party," which has an inappropriate use of the possesive form. The sentence must be corrected to make the word a simple plural form by taking out the apostrophe. Therefore, the correct answer choice is "with his political enemies almost as much as leaders of his own party."

In this sentence, "three weeks" is actually a possessive, as the sentence could be rearranged as "\[the\] worth of three weeks" and mean the same thing. Therefore, "weeks" should be changed into the possessive form "weeks'." As the only answer choice that appropriately makes this change, "roughly three weeks' worth of work" is the correct answer choice.

The correct possessive form of men (a plural word) is "men's." There should be no apostrophe used in the word "daughters," as they do not possess anything in this sentence.

The example sentence contains two apostrophe errors. First, "it's" in this case is a contraction of "it is." "Its" (with no apostrophe) is used to signal the possessive (e.g. "the machine performed its function"). The most correct, and appropriately formal, version of this sentence would use "it is."

The travelers' "plans" are in this case simply plural, so no apostrophe is needed. "Plan's" would only be used to signal that something belonged to the plans.

The word "who's" is a contraction of "who is," not the possessive form of "who," as it is used in this sentence. The correct possessive form of "who" is "whose." As the only choice to use the appropriate word, "officials were still unsure who's bag was left unattended" is the correct answer.

This sentence contains an apostrophe error: the sentence uses the word "it's" in the second clause in order to show possession. Unlike other words; however, "its (without an apostrophe)" is the correct possessive form of "it". "It's" is a contraction for "it is." The correct answer choice is "The new campus was finally built; its facilities were considered to be the best.

Attaching 's to a last name (such as Roosevelt) makes it possessive, not plural. For that reason, no apostrophe is necessary here and the suffix should be -s without the apostrophe. The initial semicolon was the appropriate punctuation for the sentence.

Cleveland is a possessor (of "main attractions") in this sentence, and therefore the added possessive "s" should include an apostrophe as well: "Cleveland's." Since there are only two items in the list ("the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a Botanical Garden"), no comma is necessary to separate the two.

"It's" is a contraction, used to stand in for "it is" or "it has." As evidenced by one of the incorrect answer choices, "it is" makes no sense in this sentence - neither, therefore, does "it's." "Its" (without an apostrophe) is the possessive of "it" and the correct word to use in this sentence.

This sentence misuses an apostrophe. Here, there are multiple cars being possessed by multiple individuals. Since the two individuals are listed separately, they most likely do not own the cars together; therefore, an "'s" should come after both of their names in order to show that they individually own their own cars. If they owned the cars together, then a comma would go after only Jill's name. The correct answer is, "Jack's and Jill's cars were both."

This sentence does not contain an apostrophe where it is needed. The word "cars" in this sentence is plural and possessive; the clue that "cars" is plural is the use of the pronoun "they" later on in the sentence. Therefore, an apostrophe should come after the "s" (cars'). When making plural nouns that end in "s" possessive, you simply add an apostrophe to the end - nothing further. The correct choice is, "The cars' quality was so good."

It is clear that what is supposed to be meant by "its" in this sentence is the contraction for "it is." The correct form for this is: "it's." The correct choice is, "It's necessary to do the work."

This sentence contains an apostrophe usage error. The word "it's" is a contraction for "it is," while it is being used as a possessive pronoun in this sentence. The correct form is "its," making the correct choice "a monopoly because it was acquiring many of its competitors very quickly."

This sentence misuses an apostrophe. You should never use "'s" to make a word plural. The apostrophe in "scooter's" should be omitted and no additional punctuation is necessary. The correct choice is, "scooters throughout the neighborhood."

This sentence misuses an apostrophe. There should be no apostrophe before the "s" in "its." The word "it's" is actually an contraction for "it is." Since the sentence is showing possession in this regard, "its" is the appropriate word. No other punctuation is needed or should be changed. There should be a semicolon after "masterpiece" because the sentence joins two independent clauses without the use of a coordinate conjunction. The correct answer is, "a masterpiece; its notes evoked strong feelings in everyone that listened to it."

This sentence misuses an apostrophe. An apostrophe should never be used to pluralize a noun. All other punctuation is correct. The correct answer is, "In a meeting with the managers, Rebecca."